Federal agencies must prepare to integrate artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities while continuing to ensure government transparency, according to the March 14, 2024 panel hosted by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), Artificial Intelligence: The Intersection of Public Access and Open Government. Expert panelists from NARA, The State Department, Department of Justice, and ..read more

The National Security Archive, working with our partners at ProQuest, is publishing a new compilation of documents highlighting the most important national security issues faced by the Carter administration. The collection is 2,557 documents – totaling 8,904 pages – and includes all currently declassified daily memoranda from the secretary of state (or acting secretary) and ..read more

The National Security Archive’s Chile Documentation Project is wrapping up a notable year, as project director Peter Kornbluh continues to draw significant media attention to the 50th anniversary of the U.S.-backed military takeover that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power.  Chilean media has interviewed Kornbluh for numerous productions, including ChileVision’s Operación Chile: Top Secret, which ..read more

Henry Kissinger’s death renews global attention to the paper trail of secret documents recording his policy deliberations. Famous for initiatives including détente with the USSR, the opening to China, and Middle East shuttle diplomacy, the historical record also documents the darker side of Kissinger’s controversial tenure in power. The National Security Archive has published a ..read more

On March 17th of this year, State Department spokesperson Ned Price was asked by Pakistani news media about unconfirmed reports of a U.S. drone strike in the Pakistani village of Zangara, within the South Waziristan region. Price, who has since resigned from his position, neither confirmed nor denied the strike, stating “we’ve seen reports that ..read more

State Department Launches AI Pilot Program for FOIA Processing Federal News Network reports that the State Department is “experimenting with automation” to improve its FOIA work. Of specific interest is a pilot program that has “trained a machine learning model on years of humans reviewing and declassifying records” to improve the agency’s declassification processing. “The ..read more

Declassification Provisions of the 2024 Intel Authorization Act Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) is touting the 2024 Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA), which unanimously passed the Senate Intelligence Committee this week, as “historic declassification reform legislation” that will help fix “the country’s broken classification and declassification system.” Wyden’s press release notes that the IAA includes provisions that ..read more

The National Security Archive, working with our partners at ProQuest, is publishing a new compilation of documents on U.S. policy toward Iraq. The 2,179 -document collection, Targeting Iraq, Part II: War and Occupation, 2004-2011, is relevant for researchers studying a range of issues, including: The collection totals 77,706 pages and begins with the closure of ..read more

Recent allegations that the Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group native to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the Northwest region of China, are an “attractive constituency” for terrorist groups like Islamic State – Khorasan Province, warrant careful scrutiny, particularly at a time of increased U.S.-Chinese tension. The Chinese government strongly opposes the political movement that ..read more

Archive Analyst William Burr and “The Movement and the Madman” “The Movement and the ‘Madman’” recently premiered on PBS’s American Experience, and features an interview with the Archive’s William Burr. The documentary, directed by Stephen Talbot, examines how the intensity of the U.S. anti-Vietnam War movement forced President Richard Nixon to abandon plans to escalate ..read more